No. 22-5123

Kevin Brazelton v. Tennessee

Lower Court: Tennessee
Docketed: 2022-07-19
Status: Denied
Type: IFP
Response WaivedIFP
Tags: 14th-amendment 5th-amendment 6th-amendment courtroom-decorum due-process fair-trial fifth-amendment sixth-amendment stun-belt
Key Terms:
AdministrativeLaw DueProcess FifthAmendment JusticiabilityDoctri
Latest Conference: 2022-09-28
Question Presented (AI Summary)

Were the Petitioner's federal due process rights violated when the trial court denied a mistrial after the Petitioner was electrically shocked in front of the jury?

Question Presented (OCR Extract)

QUESTIONS PRESENTED In your Petitioner’s trial for aggravated robbery in the Criminal Court for Knox County, Tennessee, the trial court over defense objection refused to grant a mistrial when the Petitioner was electrically shocked by a stun belt in front of the jury during the trial, when that stun belt was activated by a courtroom deputy who was not specifically instructed to do so by the trial judge and where the trial judge acknowledged that the Petitioner had merely stood up in order to show respect after an elderly female relative had finished her trial testimony. L Were the Petitioner’s federal due process rights to a fair trial under both the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the United States Constitution, as made applicable to the States by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, violated when the Petitioner’s request for a mistrial was denied and the jury was then allowed to render a guilty verdict, notwithstanding the highly prejudicial spectacle of the Petitioner being electrically shocked by a stun belt in front of the jury? IL. Were the Petitioner’s federal due process rights to a fair trial under both the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the United States Constitution, as made applicable to the States by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, violated when the trial court delegated the decision to activate the Petitioner’s stun belt to a courtroom officer who made the decision to shock the Petitioner in front of the jury, without any direction from the trial court to do so? i

Docket Entries

2022-10-03
Petition DENIED.
2022-07-28
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/28/2022.
2022-07-22
Waiver of right of respondent State of Tennessee to respond filed.
2022-07-12
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due August 18, 2022)

Attorneys

Kevin Brazelton
Gerald Lee Gulley Jr. — Petitioner
Gerald Lee Gulley Jr. — Petitioner
State of Tennessee
Courtney Nicole OrrOffice of the Tennessee Attorney General, Respondent
Courtney Nicole OrrOffice of the Tennessee Attorney General, Respondent